Japan’s Container Trade with the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle

Once upon a time, Japan was the primary overseas trading partner of the ports that now operate as the Northwest Seaport Alliance. Indeed, Japan was the leading U.S. trading partner for containerized cargo, according to a 1980 report from the U.S. Maritime Administration. Trade with Japan accounted for twenty-seven percent of all U.S. containerized cargo tonnage. In that year, the Port of Seattle was the nation’s third busiest container port after the Port of New York and the Port of Los Angeles. Remarkably, the Port of Portland was the next busiest container port in the Pacific Northwest, handling approximately twice the tonnage as the Port of Tacoma. The MARAD report does not show any appreciable container trade with China but does indicate that Hong Kong was the fifth busiest port with which the U.S. traded.

Things change. China happened, and Japan soon lost its status as the Pacific Northwest’s top trading partner. Over the past two decades, container trade has been gradually ebbing, as Exhibit 12 shows.

At the same time, other countries have risen to claim shares of the volume of containerized trade through the NWSA ports, as Exhibit 13 demonstrates.